First Battle, Clean Grail

Grail went out hunting with his new comrades.

They slipped through the habitat of F-rank monsters—and aimed for the habitat of E-rank monsters.

As Grail walked, he checked the members—

(Hey, hey, this is a surprisingly good composition, isn’t it?)

He was excited inwardly.

Including Grail, it was “three warriors, a scout, a priest, and a mage.” It was very well balanced. On top of that, their equipment was not ordinary either, and some of it had been replaced with high-quality items.

(Couldn’t we earn efficiently even against E-ranks?)

Before long, one monster appeared before Grail and the others. It was a giant lizard flicking its long tongue in and out.

“A hunter lizard, huh…”

Oson, the leader standing beside him, muttered that as he drew his sword.

The battle began.

Just as Grail had judged, it was quite a good party.

Since they had hardened themselves with high-quality equipment, they withstood the hunter lizard’s attacks too. They maintained the battle line and gradually dealt damage.

The hunter lizard’s long tongue shot toward Grail.

“Tsuah!?”

Grail reacted with his innate reflexes and deflected it with his large shield.

(…Kukukuku! My shield may be used, but it’s high-quality! It was worth forcing myself to buy it back then!)

Grail stepped in and slashed at the hunter lizard.

“Oraah!”

He swung his sword down with a spirited shout.

Slash!

The powerful slash bit deeply into the hunter lizard’s back. Unable to endure it, the hunter lizard screamed.

A high-quality broadsword and the Swordsmanship skill.

His attack power far surpassed Oson and the others.

(As expected, it’s me! I’m the ace! I’m strong!)

Grail was drunk on the praise for himself that welled up—

No, he was not.

Grail shook his head.

(No, I’m going to become clean Grail!)

He only had to fulfill his role. The role of contributing to the party. Grail fought selflessly, trying to devote himself to that role.

“Pigyeh…!”

The hunter lizard raised a death cry and collapsed to the ground.

The battle ended.

“Phew.”

Grail breathed out. The result was not bad. It was a victory with quite a lot of strength left over. With this, they would probably be able to keep fighting for a while yet.

While the priest was healing their comrades, Oson opened his mouth.

“As expected of you, Grail! The Swordsmanship skill is amazing!”

“Well, yeah—”

Grail answered reflexively, but he covered it up with a clearing of his throat.

“It is the fruit of everyone’s hard fighting. This is a good party.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that!”

Then Oson called out to the other warriors.

“As expected, Grail is wonderful! His attack power in particular is first-rate. So I have a proposal. How about we devote ourselves to being shields and have Grail be the attacker?”

Those words made Grail feel good.

Special treatment.

It was truly fitting for Grail, the future hero—

(You get it, don’t you! The difference between you ordinary people and me! That’s right, you want to rely on me, don’t yooou!)

He thought that, but Grail shook his head.

“No… Being a shield is hard. It isn’t good to push the burden onto someone. Let’s divide it equally among the three warriors.”

It was a statement said by his resolve to become clean Grail.

Grail had not forgotten the past in Piptat, when he had pushed the burden of being a shield onto a newcomer warrior and been run away from.

“Grail—you really are a good guy…!”

Oson seemed deeply moved.

After that, they continued hunting for a while.

E-rank monsters were not opponents he could let his guard down against, but they were not difficult opponents either. They defeated them calmly.

(Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! The experience is so good!)

Grail became excited. He had been lying low without success for a while, so his mood rose greatly.

That was not all.

With every battle, the party members’ trust in Grail grew stronger. It was because the firepower from his Swordsmanship skill contributed.

“As expected of Grail!”

“Man, thank you for joining us!”

“You’re reliable! Our stability has increased dramatically compared to before!”

They voiced praise one after another.

The feeling that he had finally found a place where he belonged was unbearably pleasant for Grail.

“—Well then, let’s call it here for today.”

Oson stopped gathering materials and said that.

Material gathering. That meant collecting materials growing naturally. Of course, these could also be sold at the Adventurers’ Guild, so they became money. Since they were not found in dungeons, that was an advantage of hunting monsters in the outskirts.

Grail’s backpack had swollen until it was packed full. Of course, that was because he had obtained a large amount of materials.

The experience was nice and plenty.

If they sold the materials, his wallet would be nice and full too.

The fatigue from walking around—

The heavy weight pressing down on his back—

They were nothing but a sense of fulfillment.

On top of that—

“Grail.”

Oson approached him.

“After trying it together today, I thought I wanted to keep working with you. What do you say? Would you join this party?”

Today had only been a trial.

That was why Oson told him to work together.

Grail clasped the hand Oson held out.

“Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing. I look forward to working with you from now on too.”

The party members congratulated Grail on joining.

As he basked in that applause, Grail thought this.

(Iiiiiiiiooooooos! I, who have the Swordsmanship skill, have already found a new place to belong! It’s a joy you can’t experience, silently hunting gray ghosts alone in Piptat!)

He continued further.

(The hardship of carrying a backpack swollen full with materials gathered together with comrades has nothing to do with a loner like you! Even this weight is dear to me! Fuhahahaha! Are you jealous!?)

Perhaps some stress had built up from maintaining clean Grail mode. More talkative than usual, Grail beat up the Ios in his heart.

Still in a good mood, Grail returned to the city of Frast with his new comrades.

It was when I cut down a monster as usual and chose an item. A message reached my head.

“Schrödinger’s Cat has become level 4.”

Huh?